“Come, all you who are thirsty,
    come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without cost.
² Why spend money on what is not bread,
    and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
    and you will delight in the richest of fare.
³ Give ear and come to me;
    listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
    my faithful love promised to David.
⁴ See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
    a ruler and commander of the peoples.

Isaiah 55:1-4 (NIV)

Many of us have not experienced what it means to not have food when hungry, or something to drink when thirsty. We may have had short periods of time when we have been unable to access food or drink but it never has become a life-threatening situation. There are people in our communities who have, and do, experience food and drink insecurities. Even today in the United States there are children and adults who are malnourished and facing life-threatening inadequacies. This is true in every nation on earth. For most of us, this situation is so far removed from us that hunger and thirst is only a hypothetical experience. Only if we open our eyes to those who society wishes to hide, or we are confronted by images on the television, are we able to acknowledge such a physical need.

The writer of Isaiah takes hunger and thirst beyond a physical experience to a spiritual one. In our passage today, the prophet speaks on behalf of God. God invites all to come to God to be satisfied. The thirsty will find water that quenches the thirst indefinitely. The hungry will be filled completely. No payment is required for what God offers. God offers all which is necessary for life within an experience of great love.

While the physical hunger and thirst may be a them-not-me experience for us, the spiritual hunger and thirst is often very familiar. We are born with a desire and need to be spiritually fed. When this need is going unmet, we search for spiritual food and drink just as our human bodies instinctively do the same. God created us in a way that both these forms of need and searching are part of who we are as beings. Only God can meet the needs of our spiritual being in a way which is long-lasting and completely satisfying. All others are temporary and eventually unfulfilling.

God extends an ongoing invitation, “Come all you who are thirty…” This is an invitation which Jesus repeats as well.  The invitation is for you.